My understanding of the origin of the hump
As a desert ecologist and camelogist, the hump is the tool, nature gifted to the camels to sustain in challenging climatic conditions. The hump (s) developed when the natural course of climate change started in Asia and Arabia (35000 years before?).
Why Dromedary has single and Bactrian have double humps?
In some regions, there was one climatic challenge (hot dry weather like Arabia), the summer season but the other regions had 2 challenges (extreme cold and extreme hot like Mongolia). Nature gifted one hump for the single challenge (Arabia) and a double hump for the camels surviving in the 2 challenges (Mongolia). Mongolian Bactrian Camel -Breeding, Milk Production, and Lactation Curve
A smart idea
- D, if you turn D one step anticlockwise, it will make one hump, making dromedary camel
- B, if you turn B one step anticlockwise, it will make 2 humps, making Bactrian camel
Q: Does the hump originate in the snowy desert of the sandy desert?
According to Natalia Rybczynski, https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalia-rybczynski-548a8845/, their iconic hump(s), containing fat, also may have been adaptive. As seen in high-latitude ungulates today, fat deposits could have been critically important for allowing populations to survive and reproduce in harsh climates characterized by 6-month long, cold, winters. She has revealed from the fossils study that the camels had hump in the ancient times. https://answersingenesis.org/natural-selection/survival-of-the-fittest/humps-key-to-ancient-camel-arctic-survival/
She says “The sediments associated with the fragments suggest this animal’s habitat consisted of forests and peat-bogs. Beaver, horse, bear, rabbit, and tiny deer fossils are also found within about six miles of the site. Though soft tissue-like humps are not ordinarily preserved in the fossil record, the modern camel hump is a fat-filled structure that would have greatly facilitated the survival of this large herbivorous animal through the Arctic winter darkness” https://answersingenesis.org/natural-selection/survival-of-the-fittest/humps-key-to-ancient-camel-arctic-survival/
Further reading
- https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-do-camels-survive-in-deserts.html
- https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/how-did-the-camel-get-its-hump
- https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/science/camels-well-known-in-arctic-circles-1.290692
- https://answersingenesis.org/natural-selection/survival-of-the-fittest/humps-key-to-ancient-camel-arctic-survival/
- https://arkbiodiv.com/2023/11/20/can-camels-see-in-the-dark/
